Key Of Grey

January 4th, 2009 – As a classically trained pianist, my formative years were spent learning to play as a soloist. I needed to play as a one man band; kind of a lone wolf. In most situations, a classical pianist is playing by himself, save for the odd duet. Even when playing concertos, classical pianists tend to be off in their own world, leaving the conductor to wrangle the rest of the orchestra.

As you might imagine, it was quite a rude awakening when I wanted to play in a band with some friends of mine as a young teenager. Here I was with years of musical training, struggling to not sound like crap while playing along with a drummer, bassist, and guitarist. What was going wrong? I had flawless technique, laser sharp timing and a whole noggin of musical knowledge and yet I was as unsteady as a baby taking his first steps. Unfortunately, I had a woefully incomplete musical education.

In yesterday’s post, I talked about the relationship between a DJ and the audience. They are both equal partners in creating a unique and awesome experience. A DJ who gets it in his head that he’s some sort of messiah ready to bestow awesomeness on the peons below, is sadly not an uncommon occurrence. Similarly, a musician who plays oblivious to those who are listening is bound for the same failure.

So what does all this have to do with playing with other people? Learning to play with other people is the most important skill in learning to play music at a high level. Back when the first humans saw fit to create communities, music was a way to communicate. It still is. It’s about engaging other people, and when you do that, your own fundamental understanding of music changes. It becomes less about you, and it becomes more about us.

When I finally understood this, it destroyed the plateau that I wasn’t aware I was on. Suddenly, I was on the road to becoming a complete musician. I’m still not there yet, and I imagine I’ll be working on it the rest of my life, but that’s the fun of it. Yesterday, I was watching an instructional video by one of my favorite musicians, Robben Ford. In it, he says that he’s happy to lay down a groove for someone else to build upon. Here he is, one of the most virtuosic guitarists of all time, and he likes nothing more than to let someone else shine. I have to say, when I’m jamming with a great group of musicians, I feel the same way.

When I produce music, I’m not creating something that shows off my skills, I’m trying to build a foundation to showcase other artists. When I play with other people, it’s not about them backing me up, it’s about us all. I would never have understood this if I had continued being a soloist, and I definitely wouldn’t be able to produce music well enough if I didn’t understand at least some of what goes on in each musician’s head in a band.

I have quite a few friends who sit in their basements and practice their instrument determined to be the best, like their heroes. They feel like they need to be the best before they can even venture out and play with other people. Unfortunately, they never get good enough in their mind which means they never get to play with anyone else. One truly becomes good by playing with other people and then taking the experience home and practicing. Not the other way around.

I had almost forgotten this, but going to Japan and getting to sit in on drums for a few sessions, and guitar in others, reminded me what I’m missing by locking myself in the basement to work on music. It’s also the reason that I’m not progressing as fast as I used to when I was playing with other musicians. Yes musicianship makes a big difference in producing music, even if you aren’t using acoustic instruments. While technology has made it a lot easier to make great music without having to physically mic instruments, you still need to understand how the interactions between musicians works to create something that’s accessible to others. As they say, you need to know the rules to know how to break them properly.

Learning to play music with other people is the highest form of musicianship and something that you can work on for the rest of your life. If you aren’t already out there playing with others, try it out and see what happens when you apply what you’ve learned to your own music. Even for musical genres that aren’t typically thought of as collaborative like DJing, or controllerism, working with other musicians opens up new creative possibilities.